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Sexton to make first pre-season appearance in 12 years at Leinster
Veteran Ireland skipper Johnny Sexton will look to get the show back on the road following his Lions snub by captaining Leinster in Friday night’s pre-season friendly versus Harlequins at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. Despite starting in five of the Lions’ six Test matches across the 2013 and 2017 tours in Australia and New Zealand, Sexton fell out of favour with Warren Gatland for this year’s tour to South Africa, the Kiwi selecting Dan Biggar, Owen Farrell and Finn Russell as his three travelling out-halves.
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Even when there was an injury concern surrounding Russell’s availability, Gatland looked elsewhere and he summoned Test level rookie Marcus Smith to join the tour in Cape Town in early July rather than seek out the services of the far more seasoned Sexton.
Gatland had claimed in May that there were concerns over Sexton’s durability to play matches over consecutive weekends and this criticism was something the Irishman spoke about recently for the first time, explaining: “At the time I was a little bit going, ‘Wow!’ I had just played four games in the Six Nations.
“Yes, I had picked up a knock (with Leinster at Exeter in early April). When you are falling down in the tackle and you get a knee in the side of the head it’s nothing you can do or nothing you can control, but it was gutting to hear that (from Gatland) because I worked so hard before the Six Nations, during the Six Nations to stay fit.
“I thought I had proven by playing three 80 minutes in a row by the end, consecutive weeks, that that (durability issue) would maybe be put to bed but look, they went a certain way. I don’t know if that was just something that he said to the media, I’m not sure, but they went a different way and I just had to move on and accept it.”
LIONS TOUR FALLOUT:
Sexton on being in London on the same July day Marcus Smith got his surprise mid-tour call… and what he made of Warren Gatland's early May criticism of his durability#LionsRugby
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 1, 2021
That acceptance has resulted in Sexton strangely being available to Leinster at the start of a fresh campaign. The IRFU policy has always been to rest their centrally contracted players in the early weeks of a new season. However, such is the changed situation the 36-year-old Sexton now finds himself, he will feature in his first pre-season Leinster friendly since their 2009 Donnybrook clash with London Irish twelve years ago.
He leads an XV that includes new signing Michael Ala’alatoa for his club debut after his arrival from the Crusaders. The other debut-making Leinster starters in a fixture fearturing the reigning PRO14 and Premiership champions are academy players Chris Cosgrave, Rob Russell and Brian Deeny.
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LEINSTER (vs Harlequins, Friday)
15. Chris Cosgrave; 14. Rob Russell, 13. Jamie Osborne, 12. Conor O’Brien, 11. James Lowe; 10. Johnny Sexton (capt), 9. Luke McGrath; 1. Peter Dooley, 2. Dan Sheehan, 3. Michael Ala’alatoa, 4. Devin Toner, 5. Brian Deeny, 6. Rhys Ruddock, 7. Scott Penny, 8. Max Deegan. Reps from: Cian Healy, Sean Cronin, James Tracy, Vakh Abdaladze, Ross Molony, Ryan Baird, Martin Moloney, Cormac Foley, Ross Byrne, David Hawkshaw, Liam Turner, Niall Comerford.
It hasn't been easy for them seeing their old Harlequins pal wearing different club colours at Newcastle https://t.co/uZuvSj4gPg
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 4, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
The shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to commentsBold headline considering the Canes and Blues are 1 and 2 and the Brumbies were soundly beaten by the Chiefs and Blues. Biggest surprise is Rebels 4 Crusaders 12 - no one saw that coming. If Aus are improving that’s great 👍
1 Go to commentsAnna, You are right, we need to have patience whilst the others catch up to England and France. Also it is the PWR that has been the game changer for England. the RFU put money into that initially at the expense of the Red Roses. I was sceptical at first but it has paid off in spades.
1 Go to commentsI think Matt Proctor became a 1 test AB in the same fixture. Cameron is quality and has been great this season, can’t believe’s he only 27. Realistically how would he not be selected for ABs squad this year. Only Dmac is ahead of him as a specialist 10. With Jordan out, it will come down to where and when Beauden Barrett slots back in, and where they want to play Ruben Love. Cameron seems an absolute lock in for the wider squad though. Added benefit of TJ-Cameron-Jordie combination at 9, 10, 11 too.
1 Go to commentsFarcical, to what end would someone want to pay to keep this thing going.
1 Go to commentsHavili, our best 12 by a mile, will be in the squad, if he stays fit. JB is the most overrated AB in the last 50 years.
61 Go to commentsWe had during the week twilight footy, twilight cricket, tw golf plus there was the athletics club. Then the weekend was rugby 15s plus the net ball, really busy club scene back then but so much has changed and rugby has suffered. And it was all about changing lifestyles.
6 Go to commentsIn the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getting to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
6 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
8 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
6 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
56 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
8 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
61 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
11 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
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